Rivalry in Business Plan Competition

Rivalry Heats Up in the Annual CoB Business Plan Competition

While most JMU students are gearing up for Spring Break, a select group of
CoB students spent their time concentrating on perfecting business plan
presentations. Writing a business plan is a regular assignment for CoB 300
students, and students during the spring, summer and fall semesters submitted
business plans as part of the CoB 300 curriculum. Each plan was ranked and
scored by a panel of judges, and six out of 134 teams were chosen to participate
in this year’s competition. Traditionally, only five teams are chosen to
compete, however this year the judges were unable to narrow the field down to
just five, so six teams were chosen.

The competition will be held Saturday, April 9th. Each team will have 15
minutes to present their plan to the panel of judges. There will then be a 15
minute question and answer period where the judges will ask about specific
components of the plan. To add to the teams’ stress, family and friends are
invited to watch the competition, and a documentary of the competition will be
filmed. However, the potential rewards are well worth the stress and hard work.
The team awards range from $250.00 in scholarship money for sixth place to
$3,500 in scholarship money for first place. There are also two MVP awards worth
$1500 each in scholarship money. These awards recognize outstanding individuals,
and are determined by not only the judges but also the team members as well.
Funding to support the Business Plan Competition is generously provided by the
College of Business Executive Advisory Council, as well as alumni and friends. A
new award is being introduced this year also. The “Accenture Team Innovation
Award,” worth $1,000.00 in scholarship money will be given to the team with the
most innovative ideas or presentation.

The CoB proudly announces that the following teams competing in the 2005
Business Plan Competition:

DreamWeaver Home Theaters

DreamWeaver Home Theaters proposes to build and install home theaters and
provide exceptional service to its customers by combining knowledge of the
leading edge technology in home theaters with installation and product
knowledge.

UtiliTech

A device called the Energy Savings System (ESS) is installed and is wired to
customers’ gas and electric meters. The ESS will monitor and optimize energy
consumption and control their heating and cooling costs. For a small fee, the
company can also automatically optimize a customer’s heating and cooling costs.